


Do I Know You?

by CalamityJess



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-28
Updated: 2013-10-28
Packaged: 2017-12-30 18:57:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1022241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CalamityJess/pseuds/CalamityJess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaidan sees Gemma again for the first time in a year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Do I Know You?

__

_"You know the Commander?"_

_"I used to…"_

He hadn’t seen her in a year, not since that day on Horizon. At least not in person. He’d seen the video feeds of her hearings, like everyone else, but it was like watching a stranger. A stranger he’d loved. 

He remembered  _his_  Shepard, his Gemma, all soft edges, kind words, never a disrespectful tone to anyone, even when they’d deserved it. Especially anyone wearing the Alliance uniform. Some people claimed the camera adds ten pounds, in her case it seemed to add ten years of cynicism and bitterness. Out of the council that questioned her, all were met with ice and venom,  with the exception of Anderson and Hackett. Was it because she’d been working with Cerberus? Had her loyalties shifted in that time? 

She had destroyed the Alpha relay, killing 300,000 Batarians, claiming she’d had no choice, the Reapers were about to come through it. She claimed she’d tried to warn the colony but couldn’t. The Shepard he knew would have found a way, wouldn’t she? 

When they’d finally met face to face…he’d hoped maybe he’d misjudged her. After all, he hadn’t communicated with her at all in the last year. Maybe the vids were misleading. Anderson still believed in her, so did Hackett. He took a chance, and called her name, for a split second he caught a glimpse of the Gemma he remembered.

By the time she’d taken the few steps to join him and Anderson, and spied his new rank…it was gone. No congratulations, just a deadpanned bad joke paired with a flat stare. A chill ran down his spine.

It hadn’t gotten any better when they arrived at the Mars archive and found Cerberus there. He tried to convince himself it couldn’t be her doing. That he could ask about it later, on the ship, at a more practical time, but the words bubbled out anyway. 

_"You, more than anyone should know what I’m about"_

_"Please trust me"_

A couple more glimpses of the Shepard he knew. The odd thing was, in his gut, he did trust her. LT Vega pointing out that she’d been under constant surveillance helped. There were just some things he’d have to hear from her and see before his head would follow suit. 

He stayed relatively quiet, observing the rest of the mission. Shepard treated Liara as she’d always had, gently, as a friend, trusted confidant. A little more of his Shepard. 

When they came across the Cerberus trooper turned husk however, the dam broke. In hindsight maybe comparing her to…that was a bad start. Words always had failed him when he didn’t take time to think things through. Even sometimes when he did. He had to ask, he had to know, was the woman he loved still in there?

_"They didn’t change me Kaidan, or how I feel about you"_

One sentence, a hand on his chest, a playful shove on his shoulder, calling him stubborn. Another peek behind the wall. A glimmer of hope that allowed him to finally relax a little. 

In the archive itself, he walked the perimeter, watching, and thinking. He heard raised voices coming from behind. When he turned, he saw Gemma in verbal war with none other than The Illusive Man. 

_"Don’t interfere with my plans Shepard, I won’t warn you again"_

_"Go to hell"_

Kaidan had to smile. It was a briefly lived moment of joy, as they had to chase Dr Eva to the roof. She’d managed to get to a shuttle, but Vega brought it down…in a manner of speaking.

All they had to do now was get the data from that corpse. Then they could get back to the ship, and maybe talk Kaidan hoped. Until he found himself being slammed against a shuttle by the apparently Mech Dr Eva.

He heard Shepard yell his name, demand his release. 

Yeah, he knew the Commander. They’d definitely talk when they got on board…he thought before the lights went out. 


End file.
